Consumer Trading Software Gets Upgrades

Cariocas Inc. has added a feature to its Active Consumer Marketing software package that allows Web viewers to trade items such as images, songs, videos and virtual stickers.

The Cariocas Collectibles technology lets viewers make offers, counteroffers and accept trades. Cariocas doesn't offer creative services, so interested companies will need to work with an advertising expert to use the technology.

Lycos Inc. recently has seen viewers using the Collectibles feature visit 12 times per month on average, according to Cariocas. The company said Lycos viewers average 15 minutes at the site while engaged in the trading process.

Marketers can use the system to collect various types of information from Collectibles' participants such as their multimedia capabilities and geographical locations.

"The platform can be used to engage the audience actively for branding, customer retention and direct marketing purposes," said Laurent Massa, president/CEO at Cariocas, San Francisco.

Massa's firm expects to upgrade its technology in the coming months to include additional auction-style consumer applications.

Users will be able to bid on up to three items at one time. They will only be able to win one bid, therefore increasing their opportunity to gain at least one item without committing them to a pricey cash spend in the event of placing two or three winning bids. In addition, users will list the three items in level of importance and the system will reward them their top choice if they have more than one winning bid.

The hosted version of the system will cost under $100,000 per year while the software license starts at $150,000. Implementation can be done in less than two weeks in either case, but depends on how much creative development will be needed.